Unexpected Light
by FallenRainDrop
Summary: The unexpected journey of Team Arrow after a tragic accident brings Conner Hawke into their lives, and into their hearts. Olicity.
1. The Past That Haunts

**Disclaimer – I do not own Arrow.**

 **Chapter I – The Past That Haunts**

"Oliver".

The urgent yet achingly familiar voice brought him out of the sleep induced haze that he was in quickly. He moved off the cot, planting his feet firmly on the cold concrete floors of the foundry, scanning the area for any threats before turning his full attention to Felicity.

"What..."

His voice trailed off as he took in the stricken look of panic on her face and the way that she clutched at the phone in her hand, her knuckles turning white from the deathlike grip she had on it. He moved toward her, his hands automatically reaching for her face in an effort to calm her before he could stop himself. His mind had no say in the matter.

"Oliver..."

His heart shattered when she ripped her face out of his hands as she moved away from him, but he continued to watch as she paced before her computers. He tried to give her the space to gather her thoughts, tried to give her the time that she so obviously needed to sort through the emotions that were raging inside.

They weren't together. He loved her more than words could describe and he wanted her more than he had wanted anyone or anything in his whole life but they weren't together because he was stupid and stubborn and quite possibly making the biggest mistake of his life by pushing her away from him. So he had no claim to her, couldn't force her to accept the comfort that he craved to give to her. Comfort that she looked like she desperately needed.

"I...oh God, Oliver. I can't even...how? Connor? And all this time... and she..."

"Felicity, whatever is going on you know I'll help but you need to give me more than a few sentence fragments". His voice was patient, as if he was taking to a child that he feared would burst into tears at any moment.

She looked back up at him then, the azure depths penetrating his very soul.

Taking a deep breath in she uttered the words that would change their lives forever.

"Detective Lance just called. He...there was a car crash last week. Sandra Hawke died instantly. Some drunk driver ran a red light..."

He leaned towards her but didn't move to touch her again. The woman's name seemed to tug at a memory that was long buried in his past but he couldn't place it just yet.

"She has a son Oliver. Her will was read this morning. He's your son. Connor Hawke is your son".

"What?"

"Oliver, do you remember a Sandra Hawke?"

His mind flashed to his pre-island youth. To the days that were spent sleeping and the nights that were filled will alcohol, illicit substances and girls that threw themselves at him. Whether it was for his money or for his looks he had never been sure but it was a fact that he took full advantage of all the same. There was never a shortage of girls when Oliver Queen went looking for one.

His thoughts drifted to the one time that he had honestly thought he had become a father. The girl's name had been Sandra, he remembered that for sure, but as far as he knew she had said she lost the baby. She had disappeared after the whole debacle and he hadn't heard from her since. Was it possible that she kept the baby and just never told him? He had been too stupid and too high on the feeling of freedom at the time to be concerned with checking whether she was telling the truth. But surely his mother had checked? But that was a whole issue in itself. He wouldn't put it past the great Moira Queen to pay off a girl to leave her one and only son alone.

Moira Queen knew how to make problems go away.

"Yes I did".

"Did you by any chance remembering getting her pregnant?"

Felicity Smoak didn't need to hear his choked "Yes" to know that it was true.

The man that she loved beyond thought and reason was a father to another woman's baby.

She watched as he staggered back towards the foundry's cot, falling onto it until he sat with his face between his hands.

"She said she lost it. It was about a year before the island. I was terrified and we went to mum..."

He looked up at her then, his face filled with so many emotions that her own heart flooded with yet another wave of pain.

"She said she lost it Felicity..."

He was crumbling. She could see his carefully crafted facade tearing at the seams. After everything that he had been through, everything that he had survived, surely he deserved a little light in his life? A pause from the secrets and mysteries that plagued him every single day?

Evidentially karma still hasn't given up on making him pay for his younger years of strife and debauchery.

She moved towards him, not listening to her head but following her heart, her hand reaching out until it landed on his shoulder.

"We'll sort this out Oliver, we'll do what we always do; we'll fix this. Together".

She wasn't expecting for his head to move forward until his face was buried in her stomach but she thanked every single deity on earth that she hadn't worn a dress that exposed her midriff like so many of the others she wore. She didn't think her body or her heart could handle such intimate skin to skin contact.

That didn't stop her hand from moving from his shoulder to his head, her fingers burying themselves in his hair as her short fuchsia painted nails scraped his skull in an unconscious movement to provide some form of comfort.

She moved her other hand that was still clutching her phone up to her ear, fingers already dialling the second number on her speed dial.

" _Hi Felicity"._

Oliver let out a sigh as he recognised the voice on the other end of Felicity's phone call.

"John, we may have a problem. Well not a problem per se, just a complication. God we need to stop having complications, our life is just one big complication..."

" _Felicity..."_

Oliver almost snorted at the other mans response. They both had long ago learned that the best way to stop one of the famous Felicity Smoak rambles was to gently interrupt what she was saying with just her name.

She let out a long suffering sigh before continuing.

"Right. Sorry. How soon can you be at the foundry?"

" _Give me twenty minutes"._

 **.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter...lots more to come...**


	2. The Heart of the Matter

**Disclaimer – I do not own the Arrow.**

 **Chapter II – The Heart of the Matter**

The drive to the police station was quiet. What more could be said?

Felicity had relayed all the information that she had gathered from Lance's brief phone call – most of which she hadn't been able to retain anyway, having almost blacked out after the phrase "Queen's son". Diggle didn't have much of a reaction to the news as far as she could tell and Oliver hadn't said a word since they first heard the sounds of Diggle's boots hitting the metal staircase that led down into their lair.

Oliver stared out the window of the sleek Mercedes as Diggle drove it through the light traffic of Starling City, looking at the scenery but not really seeing it, as questions flooded his mind.

What was he going to do now? How could he even think of taking a kid in? How the hell was he meant to be the CEO of Queen Consolidated and a father? And what about the Arrow? How could a child be around that?

The child. A child that he never knew was out there. How was he meant to be a father to a boy that he had never even met? What did he look like? Would he hate him?

There were more questions than answers.

He felt a soft hand encase his and he couldn't help but feel his heart break just a little bit more. What had he done in his lifetime to deserve a woman like her? Of course she'd be right there next to him after finding out about his new heir. She had supported him through it all; the women that had been in his life, the constant stream of drama of his family, the death of his mother, she was the one that had dragged him back to the land of the living after he had run off to Lian Yu like the coward he knew he was.

He didn't know what miracle fate had created to have such a remarkable woman by his side.

Diggle led the team into the Police Precinct with a slight nod to Oliver, sensing the younger man's need to hang in the shadows for a little bit longer.

Felicity brushed his shoulder with hers, knowing that hand holding would attract too much attention to them but wanting to bring some form of comfort to him all the same. Yes she was still pissed off at him, and she felt that she had every right to be, but a part of her did realize that none of this was his fault. Well technically he _made_ the baby with the woman but how was he supposed to know that she had lied and hadn't in fact lost it? She knew he wasn't lying when he said he thought she lost it. The sheer look of panic and anger in his face was unmistakable.

And he never was a good liar when it came to her. Sports bottles and 'coffee' drenched laptops were proof enough of that.

She saw Detective Lance coming around the corner, moving towards them before they even had a chance to enquire as to his whereabouts at reception.

A gruff "Queen", was directed Oliver's way and a casual nod in both Felicity's and Diggle's direction before he lead them to his office away from prying eyes and ears.

"Detective Lance".

To a strangers eye Oliver's voice would have seemed calm and collected but Quentin Lance had know the Queen heir since the boy was in primary school; pulling on Laurel's perfectly plaited hair one minute and beating the other boys for teasing her the next.

The man was terrified.

Lance's eyes moved to Queen's companions, not in the least bit surprised by the two people flanking Queen's sides. They were different as night and day but both Felicity Smoak and John Diggle held a steely determination in their gaze.

"Is my son here?"

Felicity flinched internally at Oliver's words and the acknowledgement of who the boy actually was. His son. She had so many conflicting emotions going through her that she couldn't even begin to catalogue them all but tried to all the same. Irritation at a woman who had lied to the father of her child. Anger at a driver who was stupid enough to get behind the wheel, ending the life of an innocent woman. Heartbreak for Oliver. Sadness for a little boy who had lost his mother.

Lance's voice pulled her out of her turmoil.

"He's been in Child Protection Services custody for a few days, one of their officers should be bringing him in any moment. Sarah Hawke was a foster child so she had no living relatives to take him in while we sorted all this out. We didn't even know who his father was until the will was read this morning".

Oliver nodded to the answer, at a loss for what to say and where to go from here.

"We'll need to get a paternity test done".

Diggle's statement didn't come as a surprise to Lance, he was well aware of the sheer number of people that had tried to take advantage of the Queens and their money. People that rich were never stupid enough to go by faith alone and there were some formalities that needed to be undertaken. And Connor Hawke certainly wasn't the first illegitimate child that had appeared out of nowhere in Starling City's elite circles.

"That's no worries, we'll get our forensics team to take some samples when the kid gets here and the results should be in tomorrow at the latest". He glanced at Diggle as he continued, "And I'm sure we can arrange for a sample to be given to you for you to do your own...investigation".

The nod from Diggle was his only response to that.

Lance wasn't clueless, he was well aware of Oliver secret identity and just who helped him with his crusade. And considering how much funds the Queen family had and Felicity Smoak's brains he could only imagine what sorts of technology their secret lair held. The results would get done a hell of a lot quicker and more accurately than anything that the SCPD could do.

"How is Connor?"

Felicity's quiet voice brought all eyes to her, and Lance was surprised that this was the first time the usually babbling blonde had actually spoken since walking into the precinct.

And of course she was the one that got to the heart of the matter before any of the men in the room even had a chance. Of course her first concern, above anything else, was for the boy who had just lost his mother. A boy whose only living relatives was a father he had never met and an aunt he didn't even know about.

The men around her had various reactions to her words.

Oliver put his elbow on his knees as he buried his face in his hands.

Diggle stood from his chair and began pacing the back of the room.

Lance stared at her for a while, as if he was looking to find something in her that was lacking but couldn't. Where Queen had found this girl he would never know but he hoped that Oliver got his head out of his ass soon and made Felicity Meghan Smoak a permanent fixture in their lives sooner rather than later for both of the Queen male's sakes.

"He's a quiet kid. Hasn't said much. From what I've gathered from Miss Hawke's file they've just moved here from Gotham. Not much else on her that I could find without digging deeper".

Felicity nodded but was saved from coming up with a response by the commotion that was heard coming from outside the office door. Not a moment later the door was swung open and a plump lady with short cropped hair and a grey uniform barged her way into the room, scanning the occupants inside before her hungry eyes landed on Oliver, her hand instantly extending out to him in an offered hand shake that Oliver had no choice but to take.

"Oliver Queen, it's a pleasure, my name is Valery Trice".

Her slickly sweet voice grated on Felicity's nerves and she wondered how such a woman could work with children.

"Mrs. Trice, I understand my son has been in your custody for the past couple of days?"

"Miss, I'm not married, and there's certainly no need for the formalities. You can call me Valery, or Val, whichever you prefer".

Now Oliver was no stranger to women falling over themselves to get his attention and he could usually tamper down his frustration and carry out a conversation but at that point in time, on top of everything else that had happened today, this woman raised his hackles like nothing else.

Diggle, noticing Oliver's knuckles turning blue from fisting his hands at his sides, decided to intervene before Oliver did something he might regret later.

"Miss Trice, where is the child?"

The woman's eyes finally drifted away from Oliver, landing on Diggle's huge form.

"Out in the hallway, I told him to wait outside while I met his father".

Felicity didn't even bother to stop the growl that came out before she used her loud voice to tell the vile woman in front of her exactly what she thought.

"What kind of caretaker are you? Who leaves a child, whose mother just died, outside by himself in a police station? And why? Just so you can meet the famous Oliver Queen? What kind of person are you? It's people like you that make the foster care system so bad".

And with the she stormed outside, leaving three very proud males and one chastised and angry female in her wake.

The door closed behind her as she stepped out, using the door handle as support while she got her racing heart under control. She really did need to learn how to control her emotions better and keep her cool.

When her eyes rose from the floor her gaze met those of Connor Hawke.

And there was absolutely no way to mistake his parentage. The boy that stood in front of her was the exact replica of Oliver Queen. As Felicity took in the sandy blond hair to the blue eyes that were the exact same shade as his father's she wondered whether he got anything at all from his mother.

She moved slowly towards him, kneeling to the floor until she was eye level with him. She didn't know much about kids, being a single child that interacted with computers more than people who then grew up to be an IT girl Wednesday didn't leave much room for interactions with little people but she went with her gut.

"Who's this little guy?"

Her voice was soft, afraid to spook him, as she pointed to the tiger he clutched to his side.

He didn't answer but he did move it towards her, as if he wanted to show her the toy a little bit more but not quite give it to her just yet.

"He is handsome isn't he? I have a giraffe at home myself but your tiger seems a lot cooler. Not that one animal can necessarily be cooler than another. Although I can't say that I like kangaroos all that much...not that you should have anything against kangaroos..."

She shook her head to stop the ramble that had clearly gotten out of hand if the confused look on Connor's face was anything to go by.

"Anyway, I'm Felicity and it's lovely to meet you", she said as she reached a hand out to him in the hopes of him meeting her half way.

It took him a little while, no doubt confused by the colourful and talkative woman in front of him, but eventually he moved his tiger from under one arm to the other and reached out a hand to clasp hers.

"I'm Connor".

And the dimples that came out with his shy smile, which was a carbon copy of Oliver's, melted her heart completely.

 _There wasn't even a need for a DNA test with those dimples..._

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 **Thank you to everyone who is reading this story! R &R. **

**XX**


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